This story is so absurd that it could've been concieved by writers of The Onion.
Are police departments creating special sections of stupid cops to combat the type of stupid criminals like the ones shown on "World's Dumbest Criminals" ?
A hostage situation is the only scenario that would merrit any type of surprise tactical entry.
Let me write here the obvious explanation of why it was such a stupid, stupid thing for the police to do. The police are escalating a quiet situation into a life-and-death armed confrontation. Putting everybody at the scene in danger. The POLICE are doing this, we expect this from criminals, not police.
But it gets better. All this was over an aleged marijuana plant, true marijuana is the cause of much evil that plagues modern man. And that's why we are at war with these leafy evil doers. But it turns out that the plant, while we can't be completely sure where it's sympathies lie, was a noncombatant.